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Networking and data sharing reduces hospitalization cost of heart failure: the experience of GISC study
Franco Pisanò1, Giulia Lorenzoni, Stefano S Sabato
1AUSL/Lecce, Lecce, Italy.
Insights
Implementing the GISC strategy significantly reduced heart failure (HF) hospitalization costs. This new approach proved cost-saving for managing HF patients over 12 months.
Area of Science:
- Cardiology
- Health Economics
Background:
- Heart failure (HF) presents a significant public health challenge in Western societies, characterized by high morbidity, mortality, and substantial healthcare costs.
- Hospital admissions are a primary driver of expenses in HF management.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the cost-effectiveness of a new strategy, GISC (Geriatric Intensive Support Care), for managing heart failure patients.
- To compare hospitalization costs for HF patients before and after enrollment in the GISC program.
Main Methods:
- A cohort of 90 patients with new or decompensated heart failure diagnoses were enrolled.
- Hospitalization costs were calculated for each patient at 6 and 12 months pre- and post-enrollment using diagnosis-related group tariffs.
Main Results:
- The GISC intervention led to reduced hospitalization costs per patient after enrollment.
- Significant cumulative cost savings were observed: €439,322 at 6 months and €832,276 at 12 months post-enrollment.
Conclusions:
- The GISC intervention represents a cost-saving strategy for the follow-up care of heart failure patients.
- This approach effectively reduces healthcare expenditures associated with HF management.
Rationale, Aims And Objectives:
Heart failure (HF) is a concerning public health burden in Western society because, despite the improvement of medical treatments, it is still associated with adverse outcomes (high morbidity and mortality), resulting in one of the most expensive chronic disease in Western countries. Hospital admission particularly is the most expensive cost driver among the several resources involved in the management of HF. The aim of our study was to investigate the cost of hospitalization before and after the enrolment to a new strategy (GISC) in the management of patients with HF.
Methods:
We enrolled a cohort of 90 patients. Patients were eligible to the study if they were hospitalized with a new diagnosis of HF or a diagnosis of decompensated HF. The enrolment to the study corresponded to the enrolment to the GISC intervention. We calculated the cost for every hospital admission at 6 and 12 months before and after the enrolment using the tariff paid for the diagnosis-related group.
Results:
Comparing per-patient cumulative cost before and after the enrolment, we showed that patient's hospitalization was less expensive after the enrolment to the GISC intervention. The strategy resulted in an average cumulative estimated saving of €439322.00 (95% CI €413890.70; €464753.40) at 6 months and of €832276.80 (95% CI €786863.70; €877690.00) at 12 months after the enrolment.
Conclusions:
We found out that the intervention was a cost-saving strategy for follow-up of the patients suffering from HF at 6 and 12 months after the enrolment compared with hospitalizations' cost before the recruitment.
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